[Exclusive Interview] Death Cab For Cutie – 修復。人生 // Life & The Art Of Repairing

Death Cab For Cutie — 修復。人生

Life & The Art Of Repairing

(中文版本在下)

Alternative rock noisemakers Death Cab For Cutie are here for the first time in their 20 years’ career. Their teenage followers have turned to their late 20s and early 30s. We get a chance to sit down and talk to Nick Harmer and Jason McGerr before their sold out concert in Hong Kong on their thoughts of our city, creative process, concept behind their new album “Kintsugi”.

Touring Hong Kong… 香港巡演…

DJ: Why does it take so long for DCFC to be here?

NH: I don’t know why haha. You know in every tour we try to go to different city that we’ve never been to and for some reason Hong Kong is never been part of the tour. We’ve been to Beijing, Shanghai afew years ago and even Taipei. We were so close (to Hong Kong).

JG: We don’t want to say “No” to other city, but we have to decide how many days we want to be out on tour every year.

DJ: As we all know you guys are very into art and culture, and Hong Kong seems to be the perfect to explore that!

NH: I can tell you now that we will come back! We don’t get 4 to 5 hours to sleep at night because we’ve been around and see everything around the city. And still there are so much to see that you can live your whole life here.

Kintsugi…

DJ: In your new album “Kintsugi”, the term is referencing Japanese artwork. What’s thereason of picking this particular kind of artwork?

NH: When I first came across the concept of “Kintsugi” as a repair technique of ceramics. I saw an image of an art blog and I love the image of this simple bowl repaired with gold resins. It just looked gorgeous! Then I start to read about the philosophy behind and why you’d highlight a break versus trying to make it perfectlyJM: One of the thing Chris said before is “I really encouraging that you guys can continue to make music. I want you guys to go on” So as Nick said, if Dave will be part of us, that’d be great. But we will continue making music either way! and pretend it didn’t happened. It’s really like how that felt emotionally and philosophically. That was like a month before we start making the new album. Then we record the whole record and in the naming phrase, I remember this concept that I introduced to the guys and I brought it back up as the potential title.

DJ: So it’s not like you have a concept and create music around it?

NH: No, we kind of run backward – we have the music and then have a name for it. This (Kintsugi) is quite a heavy concept that ties into the universe presented to us in that way.

DJ: Many people thought that it’s about long time member Chris Walla’s departure. Does that have anything related to it or it’s just purely a creative concept?

JM: I think it’s part of the metaphor, but certainly is not majority of it, whether people making changes in their lives or how this art form works – you break it apart and put that back together.

Light and darkness… 光明與黑暗…

DJ: From what I see that’s going on in the band and also the concept behind, I expect it to be a lot darker. But instead, “Kintsugi” turns out to have a lively, vibrant sound. What’s the reason behind?

NH: I like that juxtaposition. That’s always what we are good at as a band. You know it’s kind of a darker theme and lyrical content but with music that has more energy. I’ve always enjoyed playing with that “push and pull”. It’s not just like sad lyrics, sad song, sad music. It’s too much sadness! Or it’s like everything is happy all the time. That feels weird too!

DJ: That’s very fake!

NH: Exactly. I like it to be weaving – you get a sense of contrast and you put light and darkness next to one another. That works for us musically as well.

The favourite DCFC album… 最喜歡的DCFC專輯…

NH: It sound maybe a little bit cliche to say that, but the new one is very important to me because of what it represents us as a band and it’s the first time we work with an outside producer.

We kind of went through a lot while we are making it obviously – We finished the record with Chris (former guitarist / producer) but we learn half way through the record that he’d he won’t continue on. So in some way this album is the last record that will make with Chris.

I also feel like the songs are kind of a really strong blend of things we are good at that it has a familiar sound – if you like our band and listen to us from the very beginning, and you’ll feel musically there are a lot like the best thing we have to offer is the band and I also the band writes amazing lyrics in his record. He was wring from a really real and raw spot as a writer when he was making the songs. We think these are some of the best lyrics he has written too. I don’t know where we will go but it (Kintsugi) certainly will put it in our… top 3!

DJ: What you said actually makes sense to me! You won’t put out new stuff if you don’t think the materials are good enough.

JM: It will feel strange if we put out a new record that we don’t like haha!

If you’re not musician… 如果你不是音樂人……

DJ: If you hadn’t chosen to be a musician, how would you express your creativity?

NH: I don’t know… Music has been such a big part of my life. But I’ve always been creating hobbies on things I’m interested in. If you have a creative mind, you wouldn’t just spend you time on one thing. Maybe I’d try writing or some other expression, but no matter what I’d have done, I’d still have the same approach in music, which would be a hobby that I hope one day it would pay the bills.

When we start this band, we have no expectation that we would be sitting in Hong Kong playing a show tonight 17, 18 years later. We never had that kind of aspirational goal. We just want to make music together, see as much as the countries we could and have fun.

JM: I’ve literally holding sticks and trying to make music for 30 years. I did a lot of teaching before. Being a professional (drummer) on the road and touring, and teach somebody something you enjoy doing, watch them reach personal goals is very gratifying. I think if you have a gift, you gotta give back. That’s probably what I’ve to do – teaching.

New member & the near future…新成員和在不久將來…

DJ: Have you thought about having a new member?

JM: Dave (Depper) has been a great addition to the band for chemistry to say again. The live show sounds better with him. He always show great attitude. Having extra pairs of hands is also a bonus. It excites us.

NH: If they join our band right now, I wouldn’t be sad. But we haven’t get back to the studio so we don’t know to really feel. It’s still a kind of unknown territory for us. So we’ll see.

JM: One of the thing Chris said before is “I really encouraging that you guys can continue to make music. I want you guys to go on” So as Nick said, if Dave will be part of us, that’d be great. But we will continue making music either way!